Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for our webinar, “Using Children’s Books to Approach Trauma-Informed Education”. If you missed it live, or just want to watch it again, here is a recording of the webinar:
Tag Archives: Educators
Diverse Books and Mentors are a Powerful Combination for Developing Young Readers
In this guest blog post, educator Lindsay Barrett discusses the power and importance in having diverse books and mentors. Jill Eisenberg, director of curriculum and literacy strategy at Lee & Low Books, also discusses the role of diverse books in mentoring programs for developing readers. This blog post first appeared on Reading Partners.
The Importance of Diversity in Leveled Readers & Reading Recovery®
In this guest blog post, Dr. Lisa Pinkerton, the Marie Clay Endowed Chair in Reading Recovery® and Early Literacy at The Ohio State University, discusses the importance of expanding diverse stories for young readers in Reading Recovery®.
I have long admired Lee & Low Books and their mission to publish contemporary diverse stories that all children can enjoy. As a Reading Recovery® trainer, imagine my delight to discover that Lee & Low Books is now on the RRCNA booklist!
Free Upcoming Webinar: Using Children’s Books to Approach Trauma-Informed Education
Join us for our critical back to school webinar about Trauma-Informed Education in time for the release of our new Trauma-Informed Education Book List on Wednesday, September 25 at 4:00 PM ET. Katie Potter, Lee & Low’s Literacy Specialist, and Andrea Adomako, an educator who has worked with elementary, middle and high school students, a PhD student in African American Studies, and a Mellon Cluster Fellow in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University, will discuss different books and activities that approach various kinds of trauma.
Social Activism Books for Fourth Grade
Books can encourage kids of all ages to enact change in their communities. Because it’s never too early to make a difference, we’ll be sharing a list of social activism books for each grade level. Check out our social activism book roundup for fourth grade below and for more social activism titles, check out our full printable Social Activism Diverse Reading List!
Reading Recovery® Bebop Books Collection for your Classroom Library
Reading Recovery® Bebop Books Levels are in—Just In Time for Back to School Orders!
Lee & Low Books is proud to be the nation’s largest publisher of multicultural children’s books. With the launch of our new Reading Recovery® Bebop Books collection, schools across the country will now be able to bring more equity, inclusion, and diversity into their classroom libraries.
Reading Recovery® is an early intervention program for first-grade children. All texts submitted must go through a rigorous research-based process and only titles of the highest-quality are selected.
We are honored to have our Bebop titles accepted for the book list, and ensure even more access to scores of authentic, culturally responsive, contemporary books at the levels students need.
Diverse Summer Reading Recommendations for Grades 6-8
We’re closing out our Summer Reading “For Fans Of” series with our last age group, grades 6 to 8! In our last post, we posed some questions that could ask to get kids thinking across their texts to keep their brains energized during the summer. Additional questions and probes are listed below:
- How did the authors use symbolism in their books? What were some of the symbols in the two books? Did they relate in any way? Why or why not?
- Did the main characters change over the course of the books? How?
- What big lesson did you learn from this book? How did that impact you?
See our Diverse Summer Reading List for the full list of titles from grades PreK to grade 8. Continue reading
Watch the Webinar: LGBTQ+ Children’s Books
Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for our webinar, “LGBTQ+ Children’s Books: A Conversation with Authors.” If you missed it live, or just want to watch it again, here is a recording of the webinar:
How to Critically Select Children’s Books with Representations of Disability Experiences
In this guest blog post, Monica Kleekamp, a PhD candidate in the department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum at the University of Missouri-Columbia, discusses the importance of inclusive children’s literature and how to critically select texts with regards to representations of disability experiences.
What is inclusive children’s literature? What is it not? Why is it important?
As students look to the shelves in their classrooms and school libraries, they seek representations of themselves—characters who look, feel, and experience the world in similar ways. The field of children’s literature continues to problematize the ways our bookshelves perpetuate representations of white, cisgender, heterosexual, and middle-class characters. A term often added to the end of this list is “able.”
Inclusive children’s literature that features characters who are either physically and/or intellectually diverse—characters who have been labeled as disabled—remain few and far between. Additionally, those texts that do exist often follow tropes of pity or dehumanization. These texts have also been heavily critiqued for their over-representation of white male characters who access prosthetics. Continue reading
Social Activism Books for Third Grade
Books can encourage kids of all ages to enact change in their communities. Because it’s never too early to make a difference, we’ll be sharing a list of social activism books for each grade level. Check out our social activism book roundup for third grade below and for more social activism titles, check out our full printable Social Activism Diverse Reading List!